Two of our top pundits -- Tim Appelo (Hollywood Reporter) and Anne Thompson (Thompson on Hollywood) -- tangle over the Best Picture odds for "The Kids Are All Right." Anne thinks that the so-called "steak eaters" in the academy will not go for this film while Tim says most of the other frontrunners are not tilted toward the testosterone tendencies of these voters either.
Anne defines this faction as "red-blooded males (not just American, Europeans and Aussies too), often directors, writers and craftspeople. They’re the guys who voted for 'The Silence of the Lambs,' 'Braveheart,' 'Gladiator,' 'Avatar' and yes, 'Crash' over 'Brokeback Mountain.' 'They vote for big movies that make big money, good solid moviemaking with great actors and good storytelling,' says one veteran Oscar campaigner. ''True Grit' is for them.'”
As such, she says that they won't be won
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On Tuesday, Anne Thompson reasoned out why "The Kids Are All Right" will likely get nominated for best picture, but not director. The Academy, she explains, is full of "Steak Eaters":

They're red-blooded males (not just American--Europeans and Aussies too), often directors, writers and craftspeople. They're the guys who voted for The Silence of the Lambs, Braveheart, Gladiator, Avatar and yes, Crash over Brokeback Mountain. "They vote for big movies that make big money, good solid moviemaking with great actors and good storytelling," says one veteran Oscar campaigner. "True Grit is for them."

"The Kids Are All Right," on the other hand, is implied to be a salad of a movie -- female-centric, relationship-driven, an intimate comedy that doesn't sport any flashier instances of craft, effects or attention-getting cinematography, all obstacles to winning Oscars in the categories of picture and director. At the Hollywood Reporter, Tim Appelo counters Thompson's
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Oscar campaigners call them the Steak Eaters. The Academy is full of them--they're red-blooded males (not just American--Brits and Aussies too), often directors, writers and craftspeople. They're the guys who voted for The Silence of the Lambs, Braveheart, Gladiator, Avatar and yes, Crash over Brokeback Mountain. "They vote for big movies that make big money, good solid moviemaking with great actors and good storytelling," says one veteran Oscar campaigner. "True Grit is for them." This faction of the Academy is also likely to vote for Ben Affleck's The Town and David O. Russell's The Fighter. One movie that is not likely to be inside their wheelhouse: Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right. For those who think that the Academy proved itself not sexist by
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Disney’s Rich Ross told Deadline , “We’re Going For The Best Picture Win” For Toy Story 3. We wanted to have the best movie and the reviews have clearly said that and it’s the number one box office hit of the year so I’m not sure why we would not go for it all,” The Walt Disney Studios Chairman was of course referring to their worldwide billion dollar grosser which also happens to sit atop the Rotten Tomatoes chart as the best reviewed film of 2010.

As you probably know by now, Disney and Pixar have been pushing for not only Best Animated Feature, but the Academy Award for Best Picture. We've written in the past about the ambitious Oscar campaign [1] launched by the mouse house -- Industry trade newspaper advertisements which feature characters and scenes from the film compared to previous Best Picture winners that had something going against them such as being a different genre, a sequel or a plain old underdog. Films such as The Godfather Part II, West Side Story, On The Waterfront, Shakespeare In Love, The Silence Of The Lambs, Titanic, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King and Forrest Gump.
We've featured a couple of these ads on the site in the past months, and today we learned that Disney has released the whole batch of "for your consideration" campaign ads on their online awards site. Hit
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Wendy Alden, a young, attractive secretary lacking in self- confidence and self-esteem, becomes victim of a savage killer who has claimed the lives of a number of other women. Somehow Wendy finds resources of courage to fight back and escape.

Obsessed with killing Wendy, Franklin Rood, the killer, penetrates a police cordon set up to guard her by Det. Tony Delgado, the detective investigating the case.
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Get ready for a whole host of TV shows and movies to get you through the festive period - it's our look at UK telly...!

We've taken a scythe to the Christmas telly schedule to help you sort the geek from the chav. We hope the listing of shows and films will help brighten your holiday via the warm rays of the living room telly.

If we missed any of your favourites, please have a ho-ho-ho in the comments section, with our thanks and best wishes for a happy holiday.

The Flash co-writer Marc Guggenheim has said that the proposed DC Comics adaptation will be dark. Speaking to MTV, the scribe revealed that the superhero movie will contain elements of crime thriller inspired by Se7en and The Silence Of The Lambs. "The tone is sort of darker, and more like Se7en and Silence Of The Lambs in that mysterious and noir-ish way, which is also working in conjunction with the superhero elements," he said. "It's a lot of fun. I think the character (more)
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The Walking Dead ends in the UK, the original Wallander is on, Dirk Gently arrives, and there are lots of films to look forward to as well...

As many of our favourite shows finish or break for the winter and holiday hiatus, we reach the short lull before the madness of Christmas scheduling.

But there's still lots of great telly to be found in the upcoming week and we give you the highlights of the next seven days' worth of televisual delights and curiosities.

Tonight, Friday, December 10th, The Walking Dead finale airs at 10:00pm on FX. Entitled Ts-19, the episode begins with our group of survivors finally reaching what appears to be a zombie-free haven. But that would be too easy, wouldn't it? It was far too short a series with far too long to wait until it starts again, but have a look and see if you
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Photo: Columbia Pictures
The memories of Academy members have always been seen as short term. This isn't because of physical examinations performed by doctors or intense scientific studies, it's simply because the record shows that films released later in the year tend to take home the Oscar kudos more than those released earlier.

Certainly, there are exceptions to every rule and we had one just last year with the early summer release, The Hurt Locker, winning six Oscars including Best Picture. Before that, the May releases of Crash, Gladiator and Braveheart won Best Picture with other early releases such as Forrest Gump in 1994 and The Silence of the Lambs in 1992 taking the top prize. However, that's just six films out of the last 20 years that were released before August.

Peep Show, Robert's Web, the end of Merlin, a repeat for Sherlock, and the conclusion of The Trip. Meet our UK TV round-up of what's coming...

After a couple weeks' break, we play catch-up this week with new programme starts, say goodbye with series finales, and hello once more to a very welcome return visit. All coming up in the next seven days on UK telly.

Last week, the excellent Peep Show, starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, aired the first episode of its seventh series. Mark is now a dad, although a reluctant one initially, and there's evidence of plenty left in the tank for the show, even at this great running distance, as you can see in our review of the premiere here. The series continues on Channel 4 tonight, Friday, December 3rd at 10:00pm and if you want to catch up, you can watch episode 1 here.
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Looking to be kept up-to-date on all things pertaining to the upcoming look back at Wes Craven's original entry into the Scream franchise for the A&E Biography Channel, "Scream: The Inside Story"? Well then fire up your Facebook because an official page has been launched!

"Scream: The Inside Story" will be focused primarily on the first film in the storied franchise. One that reignited both the horror genre as a whole and of course the slasher subgenre.

"After our incredibly successful collaboration on 'Never Sleep Again,' we were eager to find another project to work on together," says Dan Farrands of Thommy Hutson and their team at 1428 Films. "Fortunately, we didn't need to look far. Having had such an incredible experience with Wes Craven and our friends at the Bio Channel on 'Never Sleep Again,' and of course with 'Scream 4' right around the corner,
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Yesterday we told you guys about the Dan Farrands-directed Scream documentary for the A&E Biography Channel, "Scream: The Inside Story", the next in a long running series of programs examining some of the world's most influential films, and today we bring you the very first images from the set! What better way to spend your time in-between chowing down on turkey and pumpkin pie?

As stated earlier, "Scream: The Inside Story" will be focused primarily on the first film in the storied franchise. One that reignited both the horror genre as a whole and of course the slasher subgenre.

Slash Film has had a peek at Disney and Pixar’s drive to earn Toy Story 3 a place within the Best Picture category for next year’s Academy Awards.

The fun riff on previous winners of the award (images are below) clearly sets out what Walt Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross is looking to achieve:

“For some reason an animated film has never gotten Best Picture and I always wondered was there not an appetite? We decided this year we have the biggest and best reviewed film of the year. If not this year, and not this movie, when?”

It’s understandable what the company would want to try and push for the Best Picture award rather than Best Animated Feature. As well as receiving an almost unanimous critical thumbs-up (as illustrated in The Return of the King homage) the film itself delivers an emotional and storytelling quality that
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I don't always agree with best-selling author Stephen King's opinions, but I still love reading his thoughts about the film world. King has published his annual listing of the top 10 films of the year in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly [1].
His 2008 list included Death Race, Lakeview Terrace and The Ruins [2]. In 2009 [3], King agreed with the mainstream critics in naming The Hurt Locker as the best film of the year, but the rest of his list was the opposite of conventional - for example, #2 is The Last House on the Left, which he claims is "on par with The Silence of the Lambs" and "easily the most brilliant remake of the decade." Other films included District 9, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and 2012.
Which films did he choose for his best of 2010 list? King picked Matt Reeves' Let Me In as his #1 film of 2010 declaring it
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Disney’s Rich Ross told Deadline this week , “We’re Going For The Best Picture Win” For Toy Story 3. We wanted to have the best movie and the reviews have clearly said that and it’s the number one box office hit of the year so I’m not sure why we would not go for it all,” The Walt Disney Studios Chairman was of course referring to their worldwide billion dollar grosser which also happens to sit atop the Rotten Tomatoes chart as the best reviewed film of 2010.

Walt Disney Studios chairman Rich Ross created a bit of a stir earlier this week when he told Deadline the plan wasn't just to win a Best Animated Feature Oscar, but instead, "We're going for the Best Picture win," he told Deadline's Pete Hammond. "We wanted to have the best movie and the reviews have clearly said that and it's the number one box office hit of the year so I'm not sure why we would not go for it all."

The plan is to campaign for a Best Picture win for Toy Story 3 by creating advertisements that associate past Best Picture winners with the animated film, such as the image of Mr. Pricklepants to the right in a pose to compare to surprise 1999 Best Picture winner Shakespeare in Love.

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